A decade in the game, and SG Lewis has never stayed still for long. Breaking out in the late 2010s with a succession of chilled and relatively minimalistic EPs, the London producer dropped his full-length debut ‘times’ as an escape back to the dancefloor during the confusing times of 2021, then rebranded himself as pop’s new leading man with 2023’s ‘AudioLust & HigherLove’. After a subsequent stint of headline shows cemented his ability to absorb the limelight, he’s started to merge his past experiences into a new mindset.
“There’s always been this duality to the project; the singer-songwriter, producer-musician side to it, versus electronic music and club culture.” Of imminent third LP ‘Anemoia’, he declares that, “this album and the consequential live tour are the marriage of those two things. A lot of my favourite music straddles that line and that’s always a general goal for my records, to create music that exists both inside and outside the club.”
The succinct and cohesive ten-tracker feels like a step sideways and into new territory. Lead single ‘Back Of My Mind’ has Sam’s lead vocals towering over a Balearic-inspired electro-pop soundscape that maintains the tempo of his previous chapter, but twists the mood in an immediately darker direction. “There’s a more melancholic tone to this album even if it feels fairly dance-oriented,” he agrees. “The title alludes to a wistfulness while reflecting on past eras. I think that nostalgia in itself has a slightly melancholic tone to it. When we look back, even in fondness, there tends to be a hint of sadness. It’s not always a conscious choice.”
The record starts with the hypnotic ‘Memory’, a mostly instrumental opener that very quickly declares the meaning behind the difficult-to-pronounce title: ”a longing for a past, not your own past, a past you’ve pieced together from fragments.” This motif is one that SG Lewis discovered while uncovering his own inspiration.
“I struggle to kind of make projects without some kind of theme and purpose and concept, otherwise it feels like you’re just creating for creation’s sake,” he shares. “I started trying to make the album, and there was no real direction. I felt like I was just aimlessly making music, which is fun and very freeing, but at some point in the process, I stepped back to ask myself why I was even making any of it.”
“There’s a more melancholic tone to this album, even if it feels fairly dance-oriented”
If you’ve listened to his past records, you’ll likely have picked up on his first realisation. “I’m very referential in the music that I make. I’m inherently a student of music, and I get a real kick out of studying the classics of different eras, whether that’s reading books about 70s New York, 90s Ibiza, or even the Acid House boom in the UK. What usually happens in studying those periods is that I come away with a bunch of music that I didn’t know before, music which tells the story of that time, and then I’m able to feel a sense of nostalgia for these periods that I didn’t experience.”
Upon discovering the term, developing this anemoia (coined in 2012 in the dictionary of obscure sorrows) became the aim. Noting that emotional weight is often the factor that gives a track its lasting impact, Sam started to chase a feeling in audible form: “That song at the end of the night or the next day, where you go, what was that record? For me, the track with London Grammar [‘Feeling’s Gone’] captures that bittersweet feeling while functioning as a club house record. It packages so many things that became the project’s signature: those warm emotional chords, beautiful vocals – courtesy of Hannah – and lyrical depth.”
A sharp banger can certainly hit hard, but the mission to uncover a wealth of emotional fruits in his work was the less-walked path. While his traversal started abroad, it was the solid foundations of a new home base that enabled the focus to explore it fully. Instead of working on mixes from a laptop in LA or while resting between shows in Ibiza, where “there was never a sense of grounding internally”, Sam instead built a garden studio in his new North West London home – a space in which he could focus freely, away from any distractions.
“I think that the music industry and everything that comes with being an artist has evolved to become much more complicated now, but the greatest thing about all of this is getting to create music in a pure way. There was no other outside influence or pressure in that work; every day, I was just working down the end of my garden because I wanted to; that inherently invites an element of playfulness and creativity. It boiled it back down to basics and gave me some of the happiest weeks I’ve ever had, all because it was just so simple. It made me fall back in love with the craft of creating music.”
“You shoot for the moon and land amongst the stars”
Although Sam does find himself probing the usefulness of artistic extra-curriculars beyond the essentials, he’s arrived at a state of acceptance for the new, unchangeable reality that’s developed in the 2020s: “less time is being spent creating music by people that make music and the effect of that is immeasurable, but there’s no point digging in your heels because you can’t prevent the inevitable effect of technology.” This openness perhaps contributes to the ten-year-strong stint spent at the top of his game, having gone from a hotshot newbie to a definitive leader shining a guiding light for new artists through his tastemaker label, Forever Days.
Now, surprising even his wildest expectations from the early days, he’s sharing the growing platform with those he sees himself in. He explains, “For anyone who gets into music and has ambitious goals, you shoot for the moon and land amongst the stars. I never even saw it going beyond Brixton Academy” – his fantasy venue, which will make for a glorious December headline – “but then you play bigger and bigger shows and you’re constantly comparing yourself to whoever’s at the next stage along.”
“The truth is, I’ve been very fortunate. Not only do I now get to be part of the creative process for hugely talented people like D Stone or Storm Mollison, but I get to experience their excitement for those initial milestones, the little wins which matter so much at the start. It has given me a bunch of gratitude for where I am and the things that I take for granted. The lifeblood from these new artists renews your perspective. Seeing things for the first time through their eyes is so refreshing and rewarding, and not something that I expected or took into account when we started the label.”
“As an electronic music artist, you’re almost an athlete half of the time”
31 is hardly a ripe old age, but entering a new decade has meant taking more considerate choices than during his teenage years, even turning down an Ibiza villa party with Carl Cox the night before this conversation. Having experienced a couple of crash-outs in his time, Sam is all too aware of what it takes to protect yourself.
“The boundaries are wherever you draw the line. Feeling like you’re on rock bottom… I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, but there’s something beautiful in building it back from ground zero. How do I get back to a place of happiness and health? Looking after yourself will push you towards happiness and, in turn, your art. I won’t deny that hardship gives people things to write songs about, but as an electronic music artist, you’re almost an athlete half the time. It’s about being able to survive the schedule of late nights, the miles that you have to travel. That’s become a priority to me. There’ll always be another party.”
Having good people surrounding you and reinforcing those decisions is just as important in music as it is in life, and the collaborations on ‘Anemoia’ have been turned up a level, perhaps encouraged by the whirlwind success of SG & Tove Lo’s ‘Club Heat’ EP. From Shygirl’s return on the massive single ‘Sugar’ to Oliver Sim’s closing vocal melodies on ‘Baby Blue’, deep relationships blossom into genuine team-ups, and none means more than TEED.
“Orlando is one of my best friends. He’s always been a musical hero of mine, but has become a mentor to me too; his contributions to my process are massive. He’s one of the most underrated talents in music creation in general, and I feel very lucky to share any space with him. To have him visible as a feature was an extra treat. I wanted this album to be feature-heavy, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a blueprint moving forward. It’s just as likely that the next project will be a highly insular, songwriting-focused thing, but who knows? I’m excited to just see what happens next and explore whatever that is.”
SG Lewis’ album ‘Anemoia’ is out now.
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